Marketing with Foundation Year

On our BA Marketing course you’ll combine creativity, technical know-how and hands-on experience. Balancing theory and practice, you’ll not only gain a diverse set of transferable skills, you’ll also be encouraged to develop your interests and channel them into a specialist sector of your choice.

If you’d like extra preparation before starting degree-level study, we recommend you join the foundation course – which has been designed to encourage exploration and experimentation.

How you learn

All our courses are designed around a set of key principles based on engaging you with the world, collaborating with others, challenging you to think in new ways, and providing you with a supportive environment in which you can thrive.

Based in our Sheffield Business School, you’ll join a global community where business leaders, researchers and 7,000 business students all come together to solve problems and make things better.

You’ll be taught by award-winning teachers and industry experts, who bring their experience and research into the classroom. Your course is designed by industry specialists and leading institutes – helping you graduate with the skills employers are looking for.

Through our relationships with leading local and global brands, you’ll have the opportunity to access placements, volunteering programmes, training schemes, internships and work experience.

We use a wide variety of assessments that respect the diverse ways people learn. These include tests, essays, presentations, project plans and reflective writing.  

Key Themes

On this course you’ll learn the foundations of marketing theory – using market research, customer insights and competitor analysis to develop successful marketing strategies. You’ll also learn how to create brand identities and communicate brand values, using storytelling and creative to connect with your audience and grow loyal communities.

You’ll discover what it means to champion social, cultural and environmental causes through ethical marketing practices – responding to contemporary market challenges with methodical and collaborative, problem-solving techniques.

You’ll also explore how big data, social media, AI and Web 3.0 are changing the marketing landscape, learning what it will mean to be a marketer of the future.

Applied learning

We think the best way to learn something is to do it in the real world. That means putting learning into practice through placements, internships and consultancy projects through our global network of leading businesses.

Work Placements

You’ll have the opportunity to arrange a year-long work placement. This gives you valuable work experience to prepare you for your future career – and allows you to graduate with an Applied Professional Diploma to add to your CV.

Previous students have gained placements with leading brands such as L’Oréal, Nintendo, Canon, and many more – giving them a competitive edge in the jobs market. 

You’ll also have summer and winter school opportunities in a variety of locations. Recently, students from our department have visited France, Germany, Spain and Morocco. You might even be eligible to study abroad for a semester at one of our partner universities in Europe, the US, Australia and beyond.